Born in 1963 in Queens New York City (USA) and raised on the northern shores of Massachusetts, Manning went to Boston to study film and animation at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. In 1987 he produced his first black and white erotic comic strip, which he produced alongside his work as an animator and director of commercials and music videos.

In 1991 Manning moved to San Francisco to concentrate entirely on his talents as a comic and erotic illustrator. There he soon grew up to a sought-after figure in the S&M/Fetish/Sex scene. He produced erotic comic albums such as Lumenagerie (published by NBM in 1996 and published by NBM Publishing) or Cathexis (1997) and also designed fetish costumes for shows or events of the "scene".

Meanwhile his fetish art has been shown in New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Japan and Italy. His album "The Spider Garden" with black and white illustrations has already been released in France, Italy and Germany.

Manning's art was influenced by Japanese anime, fantasy art books, American and European comics as well as mythologies of past cultures. He is also a great admirer of 19th century symbolists (such as Rodin) and pre-Raphaelites, as well as the classical works of Japanese artists Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and Unagawa Kuniyoshi.

Manning maintains a studio in the Mission District in San Francisco together with his partner Lyn Gaza (photographer and filmmaker) and not only expands his collection of art books and electronic/psychodelic music. When he's not working, you can meet him on his bike in the immediate vicinity of his studio, taking him to his favorite music stores and copy shops.

Manning's drawing style is very striking and does not require a lot of shading and shades of grey. His works are mostly in black and white and live through their sweeping strokes, but he does not try to destroy the clear overall picture of his drawings and illustrations with hatching and drawing flourishes.